ESCAPE FROM HOSPITAL.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18302, 9 February 1925, Page 2

ESCAPE FROM HOSPITAL.

1 An episode that is not without its humorous aspect seeing that it ended satisfactorily occurred last week at the Cook Hospital, 6ays tho Gisborne "Times." At 2 a.m. a car pulled up in front of the hospital and the bell was rung violently. The night nurse appeared and a patient —a Maori woman from the back blocks —was conveyed within and placed in the surgical ward,. Tho new arrival proved shyness personified and during the ensuing day was wont to hide her head under the bed clothes in obvious terror when any of the staff approached her bed. When night fell this patient became even more unsettled and decided to flee the place. Thus it came about that when the nurses were momentarily out of the ward she escaped through a back window and raced down the hill in pouring rain, clad only in her night attire. When the nurse returned to the ward and found the woman's bed empty she immediately raised an alarm and nearly all. the nursing Staff, porters, and other officials were soon assembled to scour the locality. Happily their efforts were successful, for it was discovered that the patient had taken refuge in a house at the bottom of the hill and she was taken back to file institution. It is stated that the medical superinendent subsequently had an interview with the patient, who decided that she would prefer no longer to remain in the institution.